RayC

A VONC has no chance of success and, given that Badenoch can use PMQs to land her blows, it would be nothing other than a waste of parliamentary time. As Labour has a majority of 174 in the Commons, the only way that they will not complete a full term is if 1) they decide to call an early election or 2) there is a coup. Whether Starmer leads Labour into the next election is debatable but, unless there is some scandal which involves him personally, the chances of him being gone by this time next year are very slim.

Clive Myrie is a well known figure in the UK. Why is it so surprising that he could command £10k for personal appearances? What would the Isle of Man Energy and Sustainability Centre and ING bank hope to gain by bribing Clive Myrie?

😂 I wondered why I immediately thought of Sellafield/ Windscale when I saw the Ready Brek ad? Maybe this NTNON sketch was in my subconscious?🤔

I don't understand what half of that means. You stated that there are not many reports of Zelensky's fading popularity. I posted a link proving that statement is incorrect.

Touch wood. All good. I have two yearly check-ups.

That particular procedure wasn't available to me at the time. Hopefully, I won't need a second operation but If it does prove necessary I'd investigate this procedure as an option. "How would one determine a 'good surgeon'"? By research. As I said in a previous post, circumstances meant that the decision when to have an op was rather forced upon me; however, it was almost inevitable that I would need an op at some point and I researched online for reviews of my urologist. There were no accounts of blotched operations - unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for all urologists - and reviews were almost entirely positive. I also surreptitiously asked around the urology department about the various consultants and the feedback about my urologist (maybe unsurprisingly) was positive. I accept that this is hardly a statistically sound approach but imo it's better than nothing

The fact that your urologist hasn't pushed TURP on you is imo a good sign. I actually saw two urologists; the first - who was immediately available - did push TURP on me with very little discussion about the options and I quickly looked elsewhere. The second - recommended by a friend - was much more open. He would say things like, 'Here are your options'; 'Here are the pros and cons of the various options'; 'If you have questions, ask me. I will try to answer, although I don't know everything'; 'You have to decide what course of action to take yourself. I will furnish you with the facts'. (All this happened in Belgium where we were living at the time).

Easy enough to find numerous sources offering data about Zelensky's popularity without having to try too hard https://www.google.com/search?q=zelensky+support+rate&oq=zelinsky+support&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgDEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCAgIEAAYDRgeMggICRAAGA0YHjIICAoQABgNGB4yCggLEAAYBRgNGB4yDQgMEAAYBRgNGB4YxwMyDQgNEAAYBRgNGB4YxwMyBwgOECEYjwLSAQkxMzI5M2owajeoAhSwAgE&client=ms-android-xiaomi-terr1-rso2&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Must've lived near Sellafield

OP = Original prognosis? If so, official confirmation by an urologist was 2013, although I had probably been living with the symptoms of BPH for +/-18 months prior to that. I had the op in 2017. As I mentioned previously, in hindsight I delayed having the op for too long. Tbh imo you would be better looking at the aggregated data from reliable medical sources to inform your decision, rather than anecdotal evidence presented here by the likes of myself. And with that in mind, I will offer another piece of anecdotal evidence! As I mentioned previously, medication didn't work for me, but I have a friend who has taken Tamsulosin for +/-15 years. It works for him and he hasn't experienced any side-effects (although your low blood pressure might make this medication unsuitable for you). If you have a good urologist and have confidence in him/her then talk through the issues with them. S/he should be able to formulate a suitable individualised 'plan of action' for you. Good luck. Hope that everything turns out fine for you.

While Farage' didn't accept severance pay, it's not correct to claim that he refused to accept money from the EU as he receives a pension of €73k/annum from them. Farage' never explained why he would accept one payment and not the other, other than saying that he didn't see why his family should suffer🤷

I don't fit your criteria of 'all being well' but here's my experience. I had lived with an enlarged prostate for +/-5 years and dithered about having an op for most of that time (Medication had no effect,). The decision to have a TURP operation was effectively made for me, as I woke up one day unable to pass urine. The idea of wearing a catheter long term didn't appeal. I had the op. Unfortunately, it was discovered that I had mild haemophilia which fortunately was more of an annoyance than a problem although it did mean that I spent two nights in hospital. Anyway, back home. Retrograde ejaculation is estimated to occur in 70% of TURP patients and I fell into that category. At first, I found it a bit disconcerting to see little evidence of my efforts😉 but both of us soon got use to it and, other than backfiring, the TURP has had no effect on the quality or quantity of our sex life. Of course, if you harbour ambitions to father (more) children then that is another matter. The big positive for me has been the improvement in my quality of sleep. Prior to the op I was up 4 or 5 times every night to have a pee. Nowadays, it's normally once per night. Another immediate benefit of the op itself is that you will know with more certainty whether you have prostate cancer. Obviously that certainly fades with time but it offers some immediate reassurance. Fortunately, my result came back negative. In summary: To state the blindingly obvious I would have preferred not to have needed the operation. However, in hindsight I slightly regret not having it sooner as my quality of sleep has improved greatly. One word of advice: Once again, maybe stating the obvious. Choose your surgeon carefully. A good urologist might not necessarily be a good surgeon. Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Ah yes, trade deals. They were going to be so easy to negotiate and sign post-Brexit and yet, to date, no deal of any significance e.g. with the US, China or India is even close to being agreed. Moreover, given the current protectionist climate in the US the chances of a deal with them in the near term are slim to non-existant. Should that slim chance materialise, the idea that the UK could negotiate a better deal with the US than the EU is fanciful. One need only look at the relative sizes of the GDPs to intuitively realise that: The US's GDP is $27 trillion, the EU's (collectively) $18 trillion and the UK's $3 trillion.

Sadly, I fear that you may be correct. No doubt, the Putin apologists will reappear arguing that he had no choice and was forced into a corner (yet again) by the West.

Have you thought of developing these ideas? They could have legs. You need to work on your Jamaican patois mind😉

What's happening in Georgia echoes what happened in Ukraine in 2013/14. A party stands on a platform of joining the EU, but once elected regnates on its' promise and turns towards Russia. Unsurprisingly, the public feel betrayed and takes to the streets to voice their disapproval. We can only hope that Georgia doesn't follow the same path as Ukraine since 2014.

An expected response. When challenged resort to a soundbite: 'Gaslighting' is passé; 'Strawman' is the new 'mot du jour'. However, some things remain constant: The charge is without substance. How can continuing with a policy which has led to rioting on the streets be considered better for Georgia? Notwithstanding that, the fact still remains that you appear to accept that breaking electoral promises is justified if it is in the country's best interests. Therefore, there doesn't seem to be much reason for you to continually criticise Starmer over his 'broken promises', as I imagine that he believes that he is acting in the UK's best interests. I forgot to mention previously that all parties in Georgia campaigned on a platform which contained the policy to seek EU membership. Given that - and the fact that the overwhelming majority of Georgians are in favour of seeking EU membership - a referendum is an unnecessary expense. Don't you agree? Unlike you, I do not fabricate evidence to support my argument. I could not have been clearer in my previous post: I am not in favour of referendums. However, having held one in 2016 the result had to be respected. Therefore, I did not call for a "People's vote'" in 2016 and have not done so at any time since then. I would like the UK government to negotiate rejoining the EU, but I recognise that the likelihood of that happening is virtually zero and that the only realistic way the UK will rejoin is by firstly returning a vote in favour of rejoining in another referendum. To that end, another referendum on the issue in the mid-30s would seem about right to me. Sufficient time will have passed to have shown that there are few, if any, 'Brexit' benefits and a completely new generation, who did not vote the first time round, will get the opportunity to make their feelings known. As for you not calling for a 'People's vote' when the vote goes against you. Really? I recall you posting recently that you had signed the petition for asking for a General Election to be held in the UK. Of course, that's not hypocrisy that's completely different.

With any luck, Labour will act on their manifesto commitment before Musk has the opportunity to act on this possibility. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/02/what-are-the-rules-on-uk-political-donations-and-how-might-labour-change-them As for Musk becoming a UK citizen: Is this what right-wingers want? I thought that they wanted to clamp down on immigration?

I assume that you don't read topics involving the UK? The number of articles taken from the Express, Mail and Telegraph far outweigh other sources.

Double-speak and hypocrisy at its' lowest. It appears that you only support democracy when it is on your terms: You are happy to criticise the UK Labour government for what you perceive as broken promises, but cannot bring yourself to criticise another government - whose policy you support - when the evidence of a broken promise is much more obvious. 79% of the Georgian public were in favour of EU membership in December 2023. No referendum is necessary to get a 'true result'. (Source: https://www.ndi.org/publications/ndi-poll-georgian-citizens-remain-committed-eu-membership-nation-united-its-dreams-and). False accusation: I did not call for a second referendum immediately after the 2016 referendum. I have stated on more than one occasion that I am against referendums in principle - imo governments are elected to govern - and would be delighted if the UK government decided to rejoin the EU (not that there is any chance of that happening). If we must have referendums, then Alex Salmond's "once in a generation" suggestion seems like a pretty good rule of thumb when it comes to frequency. Hopefully, I'll be around in +/-10 years time to see the UK vote to rejoin the EU.

The government of Georgia campaigned on a promise to seek membership of the EU and NATO, but barely a month after being elected they immediately withdraw their support for those policies. You rail against Starmer for broken electoral promises but are happy to adopt a 'watching brief' on this occasion. Nothing like double standards, eh?

You can try looking here https://www.ft.com/content/b8bfdc52-482e-49cd-8dfb-02c9443856aa ... or here https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/the-economy-forecast/brexit-analysis/#assumptions ... or here https://ukandeu.ac.uk/reports/ That should keep you going for a while. However, if you do exhaust that supply, I'm sure that I can find plenty more material about the costs of Brexit without too much difficulty.

I was being sarcastic. I know that I should avoid it: Lowest form of wit and all that. So to restate (minus the sarcasm), Brexit has failed to deliver any of the following: Free trade deals in abundance, UK firms conquering the world, unnecessary EU legislation piled on the bonfire, thriving UK universities, newly formed research establishments - free from EU bureaucracy - which lead the world ... the list goes on. My apologies for the confusion, although a sense of confusion is quite apt given that we are discussing Brexit. Successive UK governments seem very confused about what Brexit means or what they want from it.

Ergo Russia is justified in invading Ukraine. It would be funny if the circumstances weren't so sad.

Maybe it's not the BBC which is bias? Always made me laugh that according to social media, when Laura Kuenssberg was BBC political editor she was simultaneously an extreme left-wing radical and a far-right zealot.